Editing Transatlantic communications cable

{{short description|Communications cable across the Atlantic}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2014}}
[[File:Cable_laying_machinery_on_the_Great_Eastern_(5092775547).jpg | thumb | right | Cable laying in the 1860s]]
A '''transatlantic telecommunications cable''' is a [[submarine communications cable]] connecting one side of the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the other. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, each cable was a single wire. After mid-century, [[coaxial cable]] came into use, with amplifiers. Late in the 20th century, all cables installed use [[optical fiber]] as well as [[optical amplifier]]s, because distances range thousands of kilometers.

==History==
When the first [[transatlantic telegraph cable]] was laid in 1858 by [[Cyrus West Field]], it operated for only three weeks; a subsequent attempt in 1866 was more successful.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} On July 13, 1866 the [[cable layer|cable laying ship]] ''[[SS Great Eastern|Great Eastern]]'' sailed out of [[Valentia Island]], [[Ireland]] and on July 27 landed at [[Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador|Heart's Content]] in [[Newfoundland]], completing the first lasting connection across the Atlantic. It was active until 1965.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Guarnieri|first=M.|title=The Conquest of the Atlantic |journal=IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine|date=March 2014 | volume=8 | issue=1 |pages=53–55/67|doi=10.1109/MIE.2014.2299492}}</ref> 

Although a telephone cable was discussed starting in the 1920s,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Elmore |first1=Bart |title=January 2017: From the Transatlantic Telephone to the iPhone |url=https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/january-2017-transatlantic-telephone-iphone |website=Origins |publisher=Ohio State University |access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref> to be practical it needed a number of technological advances which did not arrive until the 1940s.{{Citation needed|date=September 2012}} Starting in 1927, transatlantic telephone service was radio-based.<ref>[http://alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol14-1935/articles/bstj14-3-489.pdf Short-Wave System for Transatlantic Telephony, by Polkinghorn and Schlaack] BSTJ, 1935</ref>

[[TAT-1]] (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Gallanach Bay, near [[Oban]], and [[Clarenville]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] between 1955 and 1956 by the [[cable ship]] ''[[CS Monarch (1945)|Monarch]]''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=nNwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA115 "Being First Telephone Cable to Connect Hemispheres"]. ''Popular Mechanics'', March 1954, p. 114.</ref> It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels. In the first 24 hours of public service, there were 588 London–U.S. calls and 119 from London to Canada. The capacity of the cable was soon increased to 48 channels. Later, an additional three channels were added by use of C Carrier equipment. [[Time-assignment speech interpolation]] (TASI) was implemented on the TAT-1 cable in June 1960 and effectively increased the cable's capacity from 37 (out of 51 available channels) to 72 speech circuits. TAT-1 was finally retired in 1978. Later coaxial cables, installed through the 1970s, used [[transistor]]s and had higher bandwidth. The [[Moscow–Washington hotline]] was initially connected through this system.

==Current technology==
All cables presently in service use [[fiber optic]] technology. Many cables terminate in Newfoundland and Ireland, which lie on the [[great circle route]] from [[London]], UK to [[New York City]], US.

There has been a succession of newer transatlantic cable systems. All recent systems have used [[fiber optic]] transmission, and a [[self-healing ring]] topology. Late in the 20th century, [[communications satellite]]s lost most of their North Atlantic telephone traffic to these low-cost, high-capacity, low-[[Latency (audio)|latency]] cables. This advantage only increases over time, as tighter cables provide higher bandwidth – the 2012 generation of cables drop the transatlantic latency to under 60 milliseconds, according to [[Hibernia Atlantic]], deploying such a cable that year.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204524604576610860386189444 |title=Building Networks for High-Speed Stock Trading - WSJ.com |publisher=Online.wsj.com |date=October 9, 2011 |access-date=September 18, 2013}}</ref><ref name="telegraph1">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/8753784/The-300m-cable-that-will-save-traders-milliseconds.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911194258/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/8753784/The-300m-cable-that-will-save-traders-milliseconds.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 11, 2011 |title=The $300m cable that will save traders milliseconds |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=September 11, 2011 |access-date=September 18, 2013}}</ref>

Some new cables are being announced on the South Atlantic: [[SACS (cable system)|SACS]] (South Atlantic Cable System)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nec.com/en/press/201411/global_20141104_04.html|title=Angola Cables to build the world's first submarine cable across the South Atlantic: Press Releases - NEC}}</ref> and [[SAex]] (South Atlantic Express).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techcentral.co.za/16tbits-saex-cable-deal-signed/35811/|title=16Tbit/s SAEx cable deal signed}}</ref>

==TAT cable routes==
The TAT series of cables constitute a large percentage of all North Atlantic cables. All TAT cables are joint ventures between a number of [[telecommunications]] companies, e.g. [[British Telecom]]. CANTAT cables terminate in Canada rather than in the US.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Name!!In service!!Type!!Initial channels!!Final channels!!Western end!!Eastern end
|-
|[[TAT-1]]||1956–1978||Galvanic||36||51||[[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]||[[Scotland]]
|-
|[[TAT-2]]||1959–1982||Galvanic||48||72||[[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]||[[France]]
|-
|[[TAT-3]]||1963–1986||Galvanic||138||276||[[New Jersey]]||[[England]]
|-
|[[TAT-4]]||1965–1987||Galvanic||138||345||[[New Jersey]]||France
|-
|[[TAT-5]]||1970–1993||Galvanic||845||2,112||[[Rhode Island]]||[[Spain]]
|-
|[[TAT-6]]||1976–1994||Galvanic||4,000||10,000||[[Rhode Island]]||France
|-
|[[TAT-7]]||1978–1994||Galvanic||4,000||10,500||[[New Jersey]]||[[England]]
|-
|[[TAT-8]]||1988–2002||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]||40,000||–||[[New Jersey]]||[[England]], France
|-
|[[TAT-9]]||1992–2004||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|80,000||–||[[New Jersey]], [[Nova Scotia]]||Spain, France, [[England]]
|-
|[[TAT-10]]||1992–2003||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|2 × 565 Mbit/s||–||US||Germany, Netherlands
|-
|[[TAT-11]]||1993–2003||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|2 × 565 Mbit/s||–||[[New Jersey]]||France
|-
|[[TAT-12/13]]||1996–2008||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|12 × 2.5 Gbit/s||–||US × 2||England, France
|-
|[[TAT-14]]||2001–2020||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|3.2 Tbit/s||–||[[New Jersey]] × 2||England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark
|-
|[[CANTAT-1]]||1961–1986||Galvanic||80||–||[[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]||Scotland
|-
|[[CANTAT-2]]||1974–1992||Galvanic||1,840||–||[[Nova Scotia]]||England
|-
|[[CANTAT-3]]||1994–2010||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|2 × 2.5 Gbit/s||||[[Nova Scotia]]||[[Iceland]], [[Faroe Islands]], England, Denmark, Germany
|-
|[[PTAT-1]]||1989–2004||[[Optical fiber|Fiber-optic]]
|3 × 140 Mbit/s?||||[[New Jersey]] & [[Bermuda]]||Ireland & England
|}

==Private cable routes==
There are a number of private non-TAT cables.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Cable name
! Ready for service
! Cable length (km)
! Nominal capacity
! Latency (ms)
! Landing points
! Owner
|-
| [[Gemini (submarine communications cable)|Gemini]] (decommissioned)
| May 1998
|
|
| under 100 ms
| north: [[Charlestown, Rhode Island|Charlestown]], [[United States|US]]-[[Rhode Island|RI]]; [[Oxwich Bay]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[Wales|WLS]]; south: [[Manasquan, New Jersey|Manasquan]], [[United States|US]]-[[New Jersey|NJ]]; [[Porthcurno]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]
| [[Vodafone]] (originally [[Cable & Wireless Worldwide|Cable & Wireless]])
|-
| [[AC-1 (cable system)|AC-1]]
| May 1998
| 14,301 km
| 120 Gbit/s
| 65 ms<ref name="telegraph1"/>
| [[Brookhaven, New York|Brookhaven]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]; [[Whitesands Bay]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]; [[Beverwijk]], [[Netherlands|NL]]-[[North Holland|NH]]; [[Sylt]], [[Germany|DE]]-[[Schleswig-Holstein|SH]]
| [[Lumen Technologies]] (originally Global Crossing)
|-
| [[Columbus III]]
| December 1999
| 9,833 km
|
|
| [[Hollywood, Florida|Hollywood]], [[United States|US]]-[[Florida|FL]]; [[Ponta Delgada]] ([[Azores]]), [[Portugal|PT]]; [[Carcavelos]], [[Portugal|PT]]; [[Conil de la Frontera]], [[Spain|ES]]-[[Andalusia|AN]]; [[Mazara del Vallo]] ([[Sicily]]), [[Italy|IT]]
| various telecom operators
|-
| [[Yellow (cable system)|Yellow/AC-2]]
| September 2000
| 7,001 km
| 640 Gbit/s
| under 100 ms
| [[Bellport, New York|Bellport]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]; [[Bude]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]
| [[Lumen Technologies]]
|-
| [[Hibernia Atlantic]]
| April 2001
| 12,200 km
| 320 Gbit/s, upgraded to 10.16&nbsp;Tbit/s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=180473|title=Hibernia Offers Cross-Atlantic 40G|publisher=Light Reading|date=August 13, 2009}}</ref>
| 59 ms<ref name="telegraph1"/>
| [[Lynn, Massachusetts|Lynn]], [[United States|US]]-[[Massachusetts|MA]]; [[Herring Cove, Nova Scotia|Herring Cove]], [[Canada|CA]]-[[Nova Scotia|NS]]; [[Dublin]], [[Ireland|IE]]-[[Leinster|L]]; [[Southport]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]; [[Coleraine]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[Northern Ireland|NIR]]
| [[GTT Communications, Inc.]] (originally [[Hibernia Networks]])
|-
| [[Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe|FLAG Atlantic]]
| June 2001
| 14,500 km
|
| under 100 ms
| [[Island Park, New York|Island Park]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]; [[Plerin]], [[France|FR]]-[[Brittany|BRE]]; [[Skewjack]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]; [[Northport, New York|Northport]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]
| Global Cloud Xchange ([[Reliance Communications]])
|-
| [[TGN Atlantic|Tata TGN-Atlantic]]
| June 2001
| 13,000 km
| 5.1 Tbit/s
| under 100 ms
| [[Wall Township, New Jersey|Wall Township]], [[United States|US]]-[[New Jersey|NJ]]; [[Highbridge, Somerset|Highbridge]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]
| Sold by [[Tyco International|Tyco]] to [[Tata Communications]] in 2005
|-
| [[Apollo (submarine communications cable)|Apollo]]
| February 2003
| 13,000 km
| 3.2 Tbit/s
| under 100 ms
| [[Manasquan, New Jersey]], [[United States|US]]-[[New Jersey|NJ]]; [[Lannion]], [[France|FR]]-[[Brittany|BRE]]; [[Bude]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]; [[Shirley, New York|Shirley]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]
| [[Vodafone]] (originally [[Cable & Wireless Worldwide|Cable & Wireless]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fcc.gov/document/submarine-cable-actions-taken-pn-5|title=Submarine Cable Actions Taken PN|publisher=FCC|date=October 4, 2012}}</ref>
|-
| [[Greenland Connect]]
| March 2009
| 4,780 km
|
|
| [[Milton, Newfoundland and Labrador|Milton]], [[Canada|CA]]-[[Newfoundland and Labrador|NL]]; [[Aasiaat]], [[Greenland|GL]]-[[Qaasuitsup|QA]]; [[Sisimiut]], [[Greenland|GL]]-[[Qeqqata|QE]]; [[Maniitsoq]], [[Greenland|GL]]-[[Qeqqata|QE]]; [[Nuuk]], [[Greenland|GL]]-[[Sermersooq|SM]]; [[Qaqortoq]], [[Greenland|GL]]-[[Kujalleq|KU]]; [[Landeyjar]], [[Iceland|IS]]
| [[TELE Greenland]]
|-
| [[Hibernia Express]]
| September 2015
| 4,600 km
|
|
| [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], [[Canada|CA]]-[[Nova Scotia|NS]]; [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Ireland|IE]]-[[Munster|M]]; [[Brean]], [[United Kingdom|GB]]-[[England|ENG]]
| [[GTT Communications, Inc.]] (originally [[Hibernia Networks]])
|-
| [[AEConnect]] (AEC-1)
| January 2016
| 5,522 km
| 4 × 10 Tbit/s (four strand 100 × 100&nbsp;Gbit/s)
| 54 ms
| [[Shirley, New York|Shirley]], [[United States|US]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]; [[Killala]], [[Ireland|IE]]-[[Connacht|C]]
| [http://www.aquacomms.com/ Aqua Comms]
|-
| [[MAREA]]
| February 2018
| 6,600 km
| 160 Tbit/s
|
| [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], [[United States|US]]-[[Virginia|VA]]; [[Bilbao]], [[Spain|ES]]-[[Basque Country (autonomous community)|PV]]
| [[Facebook]] (25 %), [[Microsoft]] (25 %), [[Telefónica]] (50 %)
|-
| [[Midgardsormen]]
| Q2 2019 (planned)
| 7,848 km
|
|
| [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], [[United States|US]]-[[Virginia|VA]]; [[Blaabjerg]], [[Denmark|DK]]; [[Mo i Rana]], [[Norway|NO]]
| [http://midgardsormen.net/ Midgardsormen]
|-
|[[Dunant (submarine communications cable)|Dunant]]
|September 2020 (live)
|6,400km
|250 Tbit/s
|
|[[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], [[United States|US]]-[[Virginia|VA]]; [[Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez]], [[France|FR]]
|[[Google]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/24/how-google-is-building-its-huge-subsea-cable-infrastructure/|title=How Google is building its huge subsea cable infrastructure|last=Sawers|first=Paul|date=April 24, 2019|website=VentureBeat|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425163121/https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/24/how-google-is-building-its-huge-subsea-cable-infrastructure/|archive-date=April 25, 2019|url-status=live|access-date=April 26, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://9to5google.com/2019/04/05/google-dunant-undersea-fiber-cable/|title=Google's Dunant trans-Atlantic cable will deliver record-breaking capacity w/ first use of SDM tech|last=Li|first=Abner|date=April 5, 2019|website=[[9to5Google]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425163227/https://9to5google.com/2019/04/05/google-dunant-undersea-fiber-cable/|archive-date=April 25, 2019|url-status=live|access-date=April 25, 2019}}</ref>
|-
| [[Havfrue]], including America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) branch
| December 2020
| 7,851km
| 108 Tbit/s
|
| [[New Jersey]], [[United States|US]]; [[Dublin]], [[Republic of Ireland|RoI]]; [[London]], [[United Kingdom|UK]]; [[Amsterdam]], [[Netherlands|NL]]; [[Blaabjerg]], [[Denmark|DK]]; [[Kristiansand]], [[Norway|NO]] 
|[[AquaCommms]], Bulk Infrastructure, [[Facebook]] and [[Google]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/aqua-comms-plans-havfrue-transatlantic-cable-network-funded-by-facebook-google/|title=Aqua Comms plans Havfrue, transatlantic cable network funded by Facebook, Google|work=Data Center Dynamics|date=January 16, 2018|author=Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox}}</ref> 
|-
|[[Grace Hopper (submarine communications cable)|Grace Hopper]]
| September 2022
| 6,000km
|352 Tbit/s
|
|[[New York City|New York]], [[United States|US]]; [[Bude]], [[UK]]; [[Bilbao]], [[Spain]]
|[[Google]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/announcing-googles-grace-hopper-subsea-cable-system|title=Announcing the Grace Hopper subsea cable, linking the U.S., U.K. and Spain|last=Koley |first=Vikash|date=July 28, 2020|website=Google Cloud}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/28/google-is-building-a-new-private-subsea-cable-between-europe-and-the-u-s/|title=Google is building a new private subsea cable between Europe and the US|last=Lardinois|first=Frederick|date=July 28, 2020|website=TechCrunch}}</ref>
|-
|[[Amitié (submarine communications cable)|Amitié]]
| July 2023
| 6,600km
|320 Tbit/s
|
| [[Lynn, Massachusetts]], [[United States|US]]; [[Bude]], [[UK]]; [[Le Porge]], [[France]]
| A consortium comprising Facebook, Microsoft, Aqua Comms, Vodafone (through Cable & Wireless Americas Systems), Orange<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.totaltele.com/508575/Orange-landing-the-transatlantic-Amiti-cable|title=Orange landing the transatlantic Amitié cable|work=TotalTele|date=8 February 2021}}</ref>
|}

==South Atlantic cable routes==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Cable name !! Ready for service !! Length !! Landing points !! Owner
|-
| [[Atlantis-2]] || February 2000 || 8,500 km || [[Carcavelos]], [[Portugal|PT]]; [[El Médano]], [[Spain|ES]]-[[Canary Islands|CN]]; [[Praia]], [[Cape Verde|CV]]; [[Dakar]], [[Senegal|SN]]; [[Fortaleza]], [[Brazil|BR]]-[[Ceará|CE]]; [[Las Toninas]], [[Argentina|AR]]-[[Buenos Aires Province|B]] || various telecom operators
|-
| [[EllaLink]] || Q2 2021 || 5,900 km || [[Sines]], [[Portugal|PT]]; [[Fortaleza]], [[Brazil|BR]]-[[Ceará|CE]]; [[Santos, São Paulo|Santos]], [[Brazil|BR]]-[[São Paulo (state)|SP]] || [[Telebras]], [[IslaLink]]
|-
| [[SACS (cable system)|SACS]] || Q3 2018 || 6,165 km || [[Fortaleza]], [[Brazil|BR]]-[[Ceará|CE]]; [[Luanda]], [[Angola|AO]] || [[Angola Cables]]
|-
| [[SAIL_(cable_system)|SAIL]] || Q4 2018 || 5,900 km || [[Fortaleza]], [[Brazil|BR]]-[[Ceará|CE]]; [[Kribi]], [[Cameroon|CM]] || [[Camtel]], [[China Unicom]]
|}

==See also==
*[[Cable layer]]
*[[List of international submarine communications cables]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{cite journal|first=Jeremiah|last=Hayes|title=A history of transatlantic cables|journal=IEEE Communications|date=September 2008|volume=46|issue=9|pages=42–48|doi=10.1109/MCOM.2008.4623705}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130724101651/http://aronsson.se/hist.html Aronsson's Telecom History Timeline]
*[http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Cables/CableTimeLine/index.htm Timeline of Submarine Communications Cables, 1850–2024]
*[http://www.kidorf.com/DBLandings.php Submarine Cable Landings Worldwide]

{{Transatlantic telephone cables}}
{{Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transatlantic Telephone Cable}}
[[Category:History of the telephone]]
[[Category:Transatlantic communications cables| ]]
[[Category:History of telecommunications in the United States]]
[[Category:History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom]]